


crash at my place (baby, you're a wreck).

by vasutia



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Explicit Language, Fluff, M/M, References to Depression
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-07-08 00:04:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19860250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vasutia/pseuds/vasutia
Summary: Gray's mind can be a turbulent place, but Jellal is always there to bring calm to the storm.





	crash at my place (baby, you're a wreck).

“Where are you going?” Lyon asks suddenly. Gray all but jumps out of his skin as he tosses his backpack over his shoulders, shuddering at the suddenness of it all. _Fucking Lyon. Gray can’t so much as sneeze without him noticing it. ‘Big brother senses’ my arse, he’s just a nosey prick._

“Why does it matter to you?” Gray mutters grumpily, as he shoves his phone into his jeans pocket. 

“Uhh, ‘cause you’re leaving work three hours before your shift ends and you’ve got a face on.” Lyon replies simply, though his expression and his stance do soften slightly and, if Gray’s not mistaken, it seems as though Lyon is trying to hide Gray’s quick exit from their boss’ office with the subtle shifting of his body. _Not a total asshole, then._

“You can cover for me.” Gray answers, more of a command than a suggestion, as he straightens up.

“Fuck off,” Lyon scoffs, “I’d have to stay an extra hour to get your shit done on top of mine. I was supposed to meet Lucy--” Gray looks at him and Lyon falls silent. Gray looks tired, so awfully tired and defeated. It’s a look Lyon is, unfortunately, familiar with, it tells him that something isn’t ticking right in Gray’s head at the moment, his bones feel heavy in his skin and his head is thick and foggy, his eyes unfocused. 

Gray isn’t doing this to make Lyon’s life difficult, for once, he really needs to get away before his mind combusts and Lyon would never deny Gray a chance at peace.

Lyon sighs, “Alright, yeah. Don’t worry about any of it, I’ll cover you.” 

Gray smiles and for a fleeting second it reaches his eyes, his hand claps against Lyon’s shoulder in a silent gesture of thanks before he heads out the door. 

Watching him leave, Lyon clicks his tongue a few times, running over options in his head before settling on one, his mind whirring with concern for Gray he heads back to his own desk, pulling his phone out of his pocket. 

***

It’s awfully pathetic and immature, Gray laments, at the slight burn that’s settled behind his eyes when he finally opens his apartment door. The backpack slides off his shoulders and falls heavily to the floor, Gray not finding it in his clouded mind to care much about the sound of his laptop cracking against the wood. 

There’s a deep ache under his skin and his limbs don’t feel like his own, yet he can feel every shift of his joints and the way his bones grind together to move him towards the sofa, every step far more painful than it needs to be.

He’s so pathetic. 

Gray lays on his back, staring up at the ceiling as his vision swims. He’s probably dehydrated … _probably_. He doesn’t know, he doesn’t particularly care. His thoughts are so thick that he can’t really recall the days events, let alone if he’s consumed anything. 

He sighs and it shakes, he should have known this was going to be one of those days. Should have learned the warning signs by now, the way his body feels incomprehensibly heavier as he gets out of bed and the way his chest practically burns when he has to say goodbye to Jellal in the morning. He should have known he wasn’t okay when he stood outside their apartment door, contemplating whether to blow off work entirely and burst back into the safety of their home, bury himself in Jellal’s chest and learn how to breathe again. His hand had clenched rhythmically on his backpack strap as he stood there, feeling like a child whose mother had just left them at school for the first time. 

Lonely, upset … _needy_. 

Each step away from Jellal had been like treading on broken glass, each voice that spoke to him that morning pierced his ears (for once, Lyon had been his only respite) - Gray hadn’t been okay all day and he should have learned how to listen to himself by now, but he never did. 

So now, while he’s alone, he tries to do just that. Gray closes his eyes and listens to what his body has been trying to tell him for hours now. Focusing in on the burn behind his eyes, the lump in his throat. That’s what he wants, that’s what he needs - to cry.

To really, truly cry. 

But he can’t, the tears won’t fall and his throat won’t yell. He’s trapped in his stupid, foggy mind, that won’t shut up, that won’t let him rest. 

“Gray?” His eyes fly open, his body still feels like a prison to him and the room is still well lit.

It must have only been a few minutes, an hour … maybe? 

_Jellal? It’s Jellal!_ Thoughts that are confirmed when the taller man appears around the corner, smiling softly at him.

His eyes shine with something that pushes just astray of happiness, concern, perhaps?

Does he pity Gray? Probably. He must look awfully pitiful right now. 

Disgusting. 

Gray sits up, feigning joy as he smiles back.

“Hey,” he says simply, his voice thick with disuse and unshed tears, “What are you doing here? I mean, I thought you and Meredy had plans.” 

Gray hadn’t realised how much it had broken his heart to walk into an empty apartment earlier, he knew that Jellal had plans, but a small part of him must have hoped that he would be home, that he would be here for him. And now with Jellal in the room and everything automatically feeling warmer and less lonely, he realised just how much he had needed him here.

“Hm? Oh,” Jellal shrugs, sliding off his coat as he does so, “she got bored of me, it seems. Juvia called and apparently she’s far more interesting.” He’s smiling as he speaks, clearly not too bothered about the change in plans. 

“You could have gone with them.” Gray tells him quietly. Meredy and Juvia are fun and bubbly, two beautiful and delightful women to be around. Instead, Jellal had to come home to him, someone who's just moping around and feeling sorry for himself, a useless man who had to leave work early because he was just too sad.

A burden, that’s what he is. 

Jellal makes a face and drops his coat on the armchair as he crosses the room to Gray, “Would rather be here, with you.” 

Gray watches closely as his boyfriend sits beside him, “How did you know I’d be home?”

Jellal falters, “I - I didn’t … just a nice surprise, that’s all.” 

Any other day, Gray would have playfully punched his arm and demanded an answer or pinned him to the couch and kissed the truth from his lips, but today he just sighs, “Jellal…”

“Lyon called me.”

 _That fucking snake._

“But he needn’t have bothered,” Gray cocks a questioning eyebrow at him, “I could tell this morning that something was wrong, you seemed … distant and I know you didn’t sleep well last night. I’ve been worried about you all day. In fact, I’ve been on standby pretty much all day in case something like this happened.”

Gray’s hands shake slightly in his lap, a consequence of the lack of attention he’s paid himself today, “You don’t have to babysit me.” 

Jellal’s demeanor switches instantly, he turns his body towards Gray and takes the smaller man’s trembling hands into his own, desperate to soothe any nerves the other might have, “Gray. Gray, look at me.”

Gray does. 

“How many times, love? I’m not babysitting you, I’m not putting up with you, I’m not just dealing with your shit,” Gray flinches slightly, he does accuse Jellal of doing all that stuff often, but his head won’t let him be convinced any different, “actually,” Jellal continues, “it doesn’t matter how many times, I’ll tell you as many times as I need to.”

“That’ll get old real soon.” Gray bites out.

Jellal doesn’t rise to it, he just shrugs, “So will I,” he often acted like the four year age gap between them was more like twenty, “but I hope you’ll still love me as much as I love telling you what you mean to me.” 

_Love._ The word almost pushes Gray over the edge and he feels tears build in his eyes, but he doesn’t want to cry anymore, he doesn’t want more attention or focus on this horrible demon clawing at his back. Jellal, as always, seems to understand as he kisses Gray’s forehead and gets up to head towards the kitchen.

Gray panics, but Jellal quickly eases his burning mind, “I’m gonna’ get you a glass of water, okay? Don’t worry.”

Usually, Gray would scoff, embarrassed and almost offended at the notion that he would be worried about Jellal leaving him, when he’s only going to the damn kitchen! But he was worried, the demon had crawled towards his ear and hissed that Jellal was tired of him, tired of his episodes and his erratic behaviour. 

Though, no sooner had he left was Jellal back, glass of water in hand. In a silent agreement that they seem to have, he doesn’t hand it to Gray nor does he force him to take it, he simply places it on the coffee table instead, letting Gray decide for himself. Meanwhile, he busies himself with taking off his shoes, before moving onto Gray’s sneakers without saying a word. 

“My ‘no shoes on the sofa’ rule still stands,” he mumbles as a simple explanation, while pulling Gray’s sneaker off his left foot. Silent relief crashes over Jellal when he hears his boyfriend hum, the closest he’ll get to laughter on these days and then when the sound of Gray drinking fills the quiet room. 

Jellal doesn’t draw attention to it, he doesn’t patronise Gray like a child whose eaten all his vegetables or thank him for drinking. Gray wants normality and Jellal will be damned if he doesn’t give it to him. 

Without words they settle in for the evening, Jellal lays on the couch with his back to the armrest and Gray takes refuge in between his legs, his back to Jellal’s chest. A quiz show buzzes away in the background and, for once, they don’t fight over the right answers, instead, it’s a white noise in Gray’s ears as he focuses on Jellal’s heartbeat, gently tapping away against his back, massaging his spine and flooding his body with familiarity and comfort. 

Truly, he could be sat on the bridge in the middle of the city right now and he wouldn’t know. Here, with Jellal, practically shielded by the others larger, lankier body - he’s home. 

The thought makes him smile slightly. 

Though, his bones still ache, it all feels bearable now and his mind still feels frantic, but not as overwhelming as earlier. Gray isn’t a child. He knows Jellal can’t cure him with presence and love alone, he’s not that naive, but it helps. It really, really helps. 

Unsure how to vocalise such sincere thoughts, Gray settles for shifting his body slightly, so that he’s now able to rest his cheek on Jellal’s chest instead. Reflexively, Jellal instantly knows what to do, his hand falls into Gray’s thick, ebony hair and entangles itself there, playing gently amongst the strands.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Jellal asks quietly. 

“No.” Gray replies, and Jellal understands. Sometimes, there isn’t anything to talk about when Gray feels like this, sometimes things are just too much and neither of them are sure why and Jellal is okay with that. He doesn’t need to pick apart Gray’s brains, to force him to open himself beyond comfort. He just needs to be there for him, to play his own role in this and, well, if he does say so himself, Jellal thinks he does a pretty good job. 

“A giraffe.” Gray says suddenly and Jellal is stunned out of his reverie.

“Hm?” He looks up to see the question: _which animal has the highest blood pressure?_ flicker across the screen.

Lo and behold, Gray’s right.

“Oi!” Jellal chuckles, “You sneaky bastard, I didn’t even know we were playing.”

Gray huffs out a noise, not quite a laugh still, but getting closer, “Yeah, well, we are and I just got a one point head start, so buckle up, Fernandez ‘cause I’m playing to win.”

Jellal rolls his eyes, aware that Gray can’t see, before kissing the top of Gray’s head. He wants to say something like ‘I’ve already won’ or something equally as cheesy, but he can appreciate that Gray is trying to fall back into familiarity, into a dance they’ve performed numerous times over their years together.

So, he saves his sentiments for another day. 

They have the rest of their lives for Jellal to tell Gray what he means to him.

He pulls his lips away from the crown of Gray’s head, “You’re going down, Fullbuster.”

… He also has the rest of their lives to kick his ass at quiz shows, too.

**Author's Note:**

> wow. first fic i've ... ever written, i think? crazy. 
> 
> i wasn't going to post this at all, it was just a gift for a friend whom i love terribly. 
> 
> but. here we are!
> 
> these two are so adorable. i'm deep in the rabbit hole now.
> 
> title: sunflower - post malone ft. swae lee.


End file.
